Athens Roundup

Right, sorry for the last few Athens posts just being picture dumps. Between several distractions and the worry that I might be approaching carpal tunnel syndrome, I've been reluctant to spend a lot of time adding text to them. But then, there isn't a whole heck of a lot to say. I must admit my trip was rather top-ended in interesting things to mention. The cruise was fun, but I became rather closely acquainted with the phrase "monotonous beauty" after hours and hours of the same gorgeous imagery of blue waters, islands, little villages...Day three I left unstructured and used to spend a few hours exploring the suburb of Glydfada, where I had a decent lunch and grabbed a beach towel for use at one of Glydfada's many, many beaches. I was tempted to try and see if I had the chutzpah for one of the nude beaches I'd heard about - thinking back to the brave, bareback bikers. But it's probably for the best that I didn't find them, since I couldn't even muster the chutzpah to ask a stranger "EXCUSE ME, WHERE ARE THE BEACHES WHERE THE CLOTHES ARE OPTIONAL?". Sorry, Athens, you lost out on a sight to last the ages!In the evening I mostly enjoyed pottering around the streets of Pelaka, the cafe and shopping district which lay along the North-Eastern side of the Acropolis. By this point I'd basically stopped using my camera as I felt like I'd seen more of Athens through it's viewfinder than my own eyes. As I suspected might be the case, my new memory card led to me taking a few hundred photographs in the first two days...by the third I needed a break, lest picture-taking become a compulsion. It was during these wanderings that I found that print shop which united me with the cold, warm, loving, hating eyes of Triplex. The kind of aimless city wandering I enjoy doesn't generally make for great stories though, sorry!
During what time I had during my last day before I had to catch my flight, I toddled around the National Gardens a bit and bumped into a bird house which I hadn't seen before. Later I went to take the tube back to the airport. At first I was stunned at how clean it was. More so than Toronto or Montreal's systems and certainly lightyears ahead of...oh, say Baker Street Tube Station in London - which I swear still has coal dust from the Victorian era on it (that might not be hyperbole!). It looked a bit like what 1960's futurists envisioned rail systems of the mysterious year 1999 to look like. In stark contrast to all this was the section which doubled as a small museum, seen in the last photo of my previous Athens post. In the far backdrop you can see where they allow you to see a cutaway of the earth which is marked with all the different era's of Athens ancient history as you go deeperthrough the layers.
Flying over the Alps I went back into ultra-tourist mode and took several pictures as we passed that famous landscape - which you've been browsing while reading this post. After a quick stop in Zurich where I bought some duty-free Swiss chocolate and quickly hopped back on to come on back to good old London. That last photo, which is a bit fuzzy (sorry), is of Hyde and St.James park.

All in all the Athens leg of my vacation was very novel, but I found myself kind of just wanting to get home near the end. I suppose it had been so long since I'd experience extreme heat for several days running that I forgot how much I didn't like it! Plus it really is a city for couples or large groups, not a lot is there to accommodate the lone traveller. I might go back again, but not on my own and not before seeing a lot of other places first. The next time I have a bit of cash to spare I'm going to hop over to Paris for a weekend, I think. Looking back over the week, I think I may have taken more from the second leg of my vaction - my return to Uffington.